In this era, no one can deny that marketing is the chief in running a business. Its main goal is to help form a market base and increase revenue. Without customers, the company doesn’t have any reason to keep going. You can see it as the moving force that keeps a business alive.
The travel industry is undoubtedly a highly competitive one—there are lots of existing brands competing to get the attention of the same customer base. That pushes any travel business to try even harder to get the best results and stick out from the rest.
In your travel agency business, marketing should be considered a vital fire. Its only purpose is to fulfill your company’s number goal—getting more people to see and notice your business. And, there are tons of ways to do that. But, the real question is, how do you do it right?
How to Make A Travel Agency Marketing Plan
The right marketing strategies for your travel agency can generate profits and build customer relationships. This makes your marketing strategy worth the time and costs.
To create a travel agency marketing plan that can attract customers and increase your travel agency’s return on investment (ROI), you need to know how everything works.
To know how everything works, understanding every element in the travel agency market is your number one task.
There is a need to keep an eye on everything as the market can have many changes in just a short period. It will require you to apply complex approaches to your marketing strategy. Start with these steps:
1. Analyze where your company is at
As a start-up company or a small company, you don’t have to be good at everything. You need or want to focus on your specialty.
So, if you are a small travel agency, you might fit into one of these categories: price-oriented, destination-specific, user experience-specific, or selected demographic. Let’s explore these categories further:
Price-friendly
You are more focused on giving your customers affordable options. It is the most common travel agency out there and the most effective to start getting attention from people.
Many people want to travel but unfortunately lack the money to do so, and this is exactly the target audience you want to win over with your marketing.
Destination-specific
If you want to focus more on keeping your travel business running, you only cover a specific destination or region. You belong in this category if you only offer products and services of a specified area or region.
This category helps you to be well-versed in one location. And when you plan to add more to keep your business growing, you will already know every step of the way.
User experience-focused
Not many travel businesses concentrate on this, but it can be a unique category to be in and a great strategy to get attention. If you are a business that aims to venture on new approaches that can drive people to purchase, this is where you belong.
You aim to let your customers interact with you and have a remarkable experience in completing their tasks. For example, if you are a company that offers an online booking system that is new and fresh to the people.
2. Study your target market
Asking yourself who your audience is the crucial question to help you get started. Everything about them, from age, gender, nationality, status in life, is information you can use to improve your business.
Besides studying who are your target travelers, learn the destinations that they are more interested in. This will help you to narrow down your focus places. So, as a starting travel agency, you can specialize in a few destinations first to get the audience to familiarize your services.
The third point is to know their budget. Money always comes first and is the most significant factor when talking about travel. How much money do you think your target market is ready to spend? This point covers a more comprehensive study. And you have to define what your pricing strategy is.
3. Find your way to stick out in the industry
Standing out in a super competitive industry is not going to be an easy ride for your business. And, what you want to look out for are your competitors. Know more about them and the things that you think you’ll be having a war with. Since you’ll have the same market base, you need to examine their products and services and do your best to win more customers. Check their products that are similar to yours and see if you can do tweaks to make yours even better.
The next point would be your pricing and selling plan. Once you have identified your target market, you can now think of the promotions and discounts you can have, And, at this point, marketing plays a huge role in making it successful.
Digital Marketing Strategy for Travel Agencies
As a business entity in a very competitive industry, you should not let your business get left behind in time. The best thing to do is to be able to adapt to your customer’s behavior as fast as you can. Knowledge of new and fresh trends should always be on the table.
You should always have time to know the new technologies that keep you a grip on your customers. In this way, it will help you create and give your consumers an incredible experience worth sharing.
Another point is that innovative marketing in travel agencies helps to smoothly communicate your new travel products and services to your target market. And, it would help if you understood the words innovation and marketing fully before you get started and get positive results in your marketing strategy. To help you know more about how to apply innovation in marketing your travel agency, check out the techniques listed below.
Social Media Marketing for Travel Agencies
In this digital era, social media in marketing has become increasingly popular. The active global population in 2021 has reached 4.2 billion. This means there are a lot of customers you can get online. But you already know it is not that easy to stand out on social media platforms.
Many travel businesses have transitioned to social media, and it is quite crowded to get customer engagements. But don’t let that stop you. Social media is so essential for reaching out to customers. You just need to be knowledgeable on the key points to be noticeable on social media platforms.
Facebook ads
Many businesses turn to Facebook since it is the most used of all the platforms. You can invest in Facebook ads. These will help boost the awareness and expand the reach.
Marketing content
Making your travel website, social media pages, you need to have the right meat to add. Create eye-catching content such as flyers, posters, and brochures that you can easily post and upload online. There’ll be lots of templates available online to help you with that.
Live videos
An excellent technique you can use for your travel business is to make engaging content such as live videos or live streams. It has become a huge trend these past years. You can do it on Facebook, Instagram, and other main live stream websites and apps such as Vimeo. This way, you get to interact in real-time with people.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is where you can partner with an influencer who has a substantial number of followers. This is an excellent digital marketing strategy for travel agencies because of the increasing platform available to endorse products. There will be personalities from Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok, Twitter, and more. It’s not like before that it was only limited to celebrities and a few bloggers.
Additional Effective Strategies to Try In 2021
What can digital marketing do to your travel agency? Well, unlike traditional marketing, it offers your business technological advancements. Such as efficiency in optimization and the ability for your business to reach the worldwide marketplace. Believe it or not, it can help you get more customers than the traditional methods in a cost-efficient manner.
Email marketing
Emails are powerful messages you can direct to your customers. Send the hot deals and discount travel vouchers you are planning on regular days or holiday seasons.
Indicate urgency in your emails about the upcoming sales and discounts. These are great ways to retain loyal customers and attract new people and urge them to avail themselves of your services.
SEO investment
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is to help you give exposure to your travel brand by producing non-paid or “organic” search engine results. These organic search results are found in search engines like Google. And it is achieved through effective SEO, which has more advantages for getting the savvy searchers’ attention.
Paid search ads
Paid searches help people to be more familiar with your brand’s name and website. It also helps in building up the integrity of your website as well as your entire company. To advertise your travel company, you need to sign up for a google ads account and meticulously apply your online marketing strategy to get travelers’ attention.
It will be a great challenge for you to run a travel agency business. You just have to keep in mind that it is a constantly changing industry. Digital Marketing techniques can quickly come and go. Just keep your head up for trends, and one day you will be on top of your game.